Nokia Sues Apple for Patent Infringement in Germany and the U.S. Following Licensing Disagreement [Updated]

Nokia today announced that it has filed several complaints against Apple in Germany and the United States, accusing the Cupertino company of infringing on Nokia patents.

Nokia's lawsuit stems from a disagreement between Apple and Nokia over licensing fees for Nokia technology. Apple this morning filed an antitrust lawsuit against several patent assertion entities that it claims are attempting to collect excessive fees for Nokia patents through lawsuits and royalty demands.

nokialogo
According to Apple, Nokia's failing cellphone business has prompted Nokia to transfer patents to patent assertion entities to get out of FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory) licensing deals it established for essential patents, allowing the company to collect higher royalties. From Apple's complaint:

With its cell phone business dying, Nokia began to seek out willing conspirators and to commence its illegal patent transfer scheme in full force; that scheme has continued in full effect to the present. The driving force behind Nokia's strategy was to diffuse its patent portfolio and place it in the hands of PAEs. Acacia and Conversant were its chief conspirators.

Nokia's own patent infringement complaint against Apple claims that Apple has declined to establish licensing deals for Nokia technology that is used in Apple products.

Ilkka Rahnasto, head of Patent Business at Nokia, said: "Through our sustained investment in research and development, Nokia has created or contributed to many of the fundamental technologies used in today's mobile devices, including Apple products. After several years of negotiations trying to reach agreement to cover Apple's use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights."

Nokia has filed lawsuits in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas and Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich in Germany. The lawsuits cover 32 patents that cover technologies including display, user interface, software, antenna, chipsets, and video coding. Nokia says additional actions are to come.

Update: Nokia today filed additional patent lawsuits against Apple in Asia, Europe, and the United States. As of today, Nokia has filed 40 patent suits in 11 countries.

Update 2: Apple is now suing Nokia itself as the legal battle continues to escalate. Apple has added Nokia Corporation, Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy, and Nokia Technologies Oy to the list of defendants in its aforementioned antitrust case against several patent assertion entities that have sued Apple over Nokia patents.

Popular Stories

Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Friday July 4, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are just over two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:Apple logo repositioned: Apple's logo may have a lower position on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models, compared to previous...
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
iPhone 17 Pro Lower Logo Magsafe

iPhone 17 Pro's New MagSafe Design Revealed in Leaked Photo

Wednesday July 2, 2025 8:37 am PDT by
The upcoming iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are rumored to have a slightly different MagSafe magnet layout compared to existing iPhone models, and a leaked photo has offered a closer look at the supposed new design. The leaker Majin Bu today shared a photo of alleged MagSafe magnet arrays for third-party iPhone 17 Pro cases. On existing iPhone models with MagSafe, the magnets form a...
airpods pro 2

AirPods Pro 3 to Help Maintain Apple's Place in Earbud Market Amid Increasing Low-Cost Competition

Thursday July 3, 2025 7:25 am PDT by
Apple's position as the dominant force in the global true wireless stereo (TWS) earbud market is expected to continue through 2025, according to Counterpoint Research. The forecast outlines a 3% year-over-year increase in global TWS unit shipments for 2025, signaling a transition from rapid growth to a more mature phase for the category. While Apple is set to remain the leading brand by...
Wi Fi WiFi General Feature

iOS 26 Adds a Useful New Wi-Fi Feature to Your iPhone

Wednesday July 2, 2025 6:36 am PDT by
iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 add a smaller yet useful Wi-Fi feature to iPhones and iPads. As spotted by Creative Strategies analyst Max Weinbach, sign-in details for captive Wi-Fi networks are now synced across iPhones and iPads running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26. For example, while Weinbach was staying at a Hilton hotel, his iPhone prompted him to fill in Wi-Fi details from his iPad that was already...
iOS 18

Apple Releases Second iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Tuesday July 1, 2025 10:19 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a day after Apple provided the betas to developers. Apple has also released a second beta of macOS Sequoia 15.6. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible...

Top Rated Comments

Stella Avatar
111 months ago
Nokia have a right to protect its patents, just like Apple has a right.

The courts will decide who is right.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jk76 Avatar
111 months ago
I'll be waiting breathlessly for the final verdict in July, 2032, when the term "mobile phone" will seem quaint or archaic.
I might be a bit too dry, but seriously...

Nokia is a company in networking business, in control of significant portions of patent pools and R&D of Nokia (eh), Siemens, Motorola and Alcatel-Lucent in cellular networks. Without the research they put in the subject, there would be much less of anything those iPhones could use to communicate. They are one of the behemoths of telecom technologies in the background, along with Ericsson and Huawei. These companies are not a joke; they are building blocks of our current society. Sure, Apple would want to be let to take advantage of their research for free.

I have been professionally involved with most of these companies over my career. I have also been involved with several central companies without which Macs wouldn't be possible - and also defence companies making existence of Western democracies a real thing. The amount of interest these companies put on research is central to our modern societies, and it costs real money. Nonetheless, only expectation on this forum is some sort of a poop-throwing festivity. Amount of fixation on a single company, in good or bad, on this forum is absurd.

Let's put it straight: no company has a chance to survive purely on its own. This especially applies to markets such as telecommunications and microelectronics. Apple is reliant on hundreds of companies to make a single working product on these markets. Nokia is really one of those companies that has put - even conservatively speaking - tens of billions on R&D which has benefited Apple. What's the moral high ground choosing to unquestionably defend Apple on this case?
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tooltalk Avatar
111 months ago
Third parties have commented ('http://www.fosspatents.com/2015/05/privateering-lets-name-and-shame.html') on the deplorable practices taken by Nokia and it's PAEs before, this isn't exactly a new scenario. It sounds like Apple just decided that enough is enough; considering the lawsuit they filed is about antitrust allegations, they're obviously trying to bust the whole system open.
This is the exact tactic Apple had tried to use against Android with their Rockstar Consortium -- until Google successfully convinced the court that Apple was orchestrating it behind the curtain and moved the case from TX to CA.

Why is it ok when Apple does it, but "deplorable" when someone else does it?
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
StayPuft Avatar
111 months ago
Oh boy, more lawsuits.

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
apolloa Avatar
111 months ago
Waiting for the 'PATENT TROLL' posts from the utterly clueless followers, just like the Ericsson case...
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nt5672 Avatar
111 months ago
This will probably be Cook's next excuse for no Mac upgrades and innovations. They probably have the only 2 engineers that can work on Mac's working on this lawsuit.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)